Riba Question - does Gift-Aid count towards it?

Everyday Islamic Finance Personal and Family Finance
#1

Assalaamu alaykum,

Bit of a cheeky question: I have £500 in interest money which I want to give away. I chose an acceptable charity to give Riba to, and noticed they accept gift-aid, which adds 25% on top - money which I’ve earnt as gross income and is being redirected to a charity instead of being taxed. The argument is its still considered my money. (You can probably see where i’m going with this), is it ok to pay £400 in ribawi money, and check the option to add gift-aid which would be £100, which still totals to £500 but is technically from a different part of my wealth.

Does it depend on what the charity will do with the gift aid money? If I chose a completely secular one, would that make a difference?

Jazakallahu khayran

#2

Wa Alaykum salaam,

The gift aid is not your money. The ownership of that has passed to the government. As such, it cannot count as purification for the additional £100. Therefore, you need to give £500 from your funds in charity.

Allah knows best

#4

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPsF-QyM-k&t=1s at 2:32.

If you are a higher rate or additional rate payer you can actually claim back a chunk of that donation - and that would be permissible!